Households have embraced subscription-based television programming services, in large part, because they find over-the-air analog broadcasts of television programming to be unacceptable in terms of the limited number of programming channels and generally poor signal quality. Unless a household is located near a broadcast tower for a particular channel, poor reception has spurred consumers to pay for television programming. Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) systems have gained significant commercial success because of the variety of programming as well as the high quality of the digital transmission. In addition to television programming, DBS systems can provide households with other services, such as audio streaming, and data transmission. Another trend is that it is increasingly common to find households with multiple television sets. Conventionally, both satellite-based and terrestrial approaches (e.g., cable television) require the use of multiple set-top boxes to receive the television programming. Another trend is the rapidly increasing density of integrated circuit technology and corresponding decline in prices for consumer electronic products.
FIG. 9 shows a conventional system for distributing satellite broadcast signals in the home using multiple set-top boxes. A direct broadcast system utilizes a satellite (not shown) to broadcast programming that originates from a head-end (not shown) and received by a Receive-only satellite antenna 901. The receiving antenna 901 is typically a parabolic dish antenna with a low noise block converter (LNB), which amplifies, filters and shifts the incoming broadcast signal to an intermediate frequency (IF) band. The IF signal is then distributed via an IF multi-switch 903 to set-top boxes 905, which provide programming to television sets 907. Each of the set-top boxes 905 includes a conditional access card 909 to specify that the particular set-top box 905 is authorized to receive the programming. Typically, a remote control device 911 is also supplied to the user to conveniently select programming. The set-top box 905 couples to a telephone jack to communicate billing and control information to the satellite broadcast service provider.
It is noted that the cost of manufacturing a set-top box 905 is dominated by the cost of the large number of interfaces. These interfaces are difficult to integrate into the system chip because of the high voltages and/or frequencies at which they must operate. Such interfaces include the telephone, a smart card, LNB control, and channel 3/4 video interfaces. Each of these interfaces requires specially designed components, which significantly add the to the cost. In homes with multiple set-top boxes, these expensive interfaces are replicated needlessly.
As evident from FIG. 9, the addition of a television set requires purchasing another set-top box 905. This approach has a number of drawbacks. A major disadvantage is the duplication of hardware, resulting in high cost. Also, upgrading of the set-top boxes requires the installer/user to implement the modifications multiple times. Furthermore, traditional set-top boxes are not easily upgradable because of their inflexible architecture. Also, with the conventional set-top boxes, the addition of more boxes may entail installing more corresponding phone jacks. Because the cost of “scaling” is high, the user is reluctant to purchase additional set-top boxes, thereby reducing revenue for the satellite broadcast service provider. Additionally, because of the size of the set-top boxes, space limitations may become a concern as more boxes are acquired.
Also, traditionally, home “networking” systems have been geared towards computer networks. As such, numerous engineering challenges make distribution of television programming over home computer networks infeasible, inconvenient or costly. These challenges include, for example, cabling and hardware and software incompatibility between the computer and the television set.
Therefore, there is a need for an approach that distributes DBS programming by maximizing shared hardware components. There is also a need for cost-effectively scaling to accommodate multiple television sets, while maintaining high signal quality. There is also a need to conserve physical space in the distribution of DBS programming. There is a further need to easily implement hardware upgrades.